Artprize continued

Another piece that stood out to me was "Invasion" by Lisa March. It is about the carp invading the Great Lakes. Carp are a very invasive fish once the get into waters and there have been controversial measures taken to try and get rid of them. Her piece of art is carp that are made of wire and paper machet (I think). The carp are very life like with expressive faces. They appear to be swimming at you.

In "Dream Collector" by Heather Holloman the artist had 378 jars displayed on 6 wooden bookshelves. People could walk in between the shelves to look at the jars. In the jars were dreams. She had recorded mostly childrens dreams, wrote them down on cards , put items in the jars to represent those dreams and suspended them in water. It was interesting to read the dream cards and to see how she represented them.

More on Artprize

We went back to Grand Rapids to see more of Artprize on Sunday. If you don't know anything about Artprize it is an art competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan which runs from September 22-October 10. Art is hung in 192 venues including outdoor spaces. Paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, video all are available for viewing. The top prize winners are picked not by a juror but by the public. The top prizes total $450,000 which is an unheard of amount!

We parked near the Grand Rapids Public Museum in a parking structure. The Museum holds 72 pieces of art. I can't say I remember all of the pieces titles or the artists names but I can tell you what stood out to me. Many of the artists were on site and answered peoples questions.

On the way to the museum we walked past several large sculptures. One that stood out to me was a deconstructed car that looked like it was sinking. I thought the artist was making a statement about the sinking auto industry in Detroit. That is my first photo.

Other pieces that I loved was "Reminisence" by Jennifer Surine. Her piece was made from sterling silver shaped in loops and twirls and hung from fishing line. It was ethereal looking. It reminded me of jewelery or small wire chandeliers. The artists said it took her 17 hours to hang.

The second photo is the painting "Uprising of Sausages and hot dogs" by Sergery Tyukanov. Apologies if I spelled that wrong. It reminds me of Bruegel paintings where the streets are crowded with people drinking and dancing in the Medieval times. The artists said the painting is about our civilization that is constantly consuming.

I will continue on Artprize in my next post.

An Artful Week-end

I returned yesterday from a fun-filled, art-filled week-end. I went with my art friends to Grand Rapids, MI and Saugatuck. We visited Artprize in Grand Rapids and relaxed and enjoyed the sites in Saugatuck. What I mainly want to focus on is Artprize.

When we first arrived in Grand Rapids the weather had turned much colder and windier than when we left. It went from 85 to 58 with 40 mile and hour winds, maybe higher. It was difficult to be outside. Our first stop was Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. The beautiful green space has 26 entries, mostly large scale sculptures. It is also hosting a glass works show by Dale Chihuly. The glass works are so beautiful. Totally worth the 3 hour drive and freezing! We went on the tram ride that takes you past most of the sculptures. My photos above are of the Dale Chihuly glass. I will include more photos and information on Artprize in later entries.

If you want to find more information on Artprize you can visit www.Artprize.org and there was an excellent article on Artprize in the Detroit Free Press, so visit www.Freep.com. The article was in September 23 Play section.

Card #42 Angular sensation

Card #42 is another of my triangular, abstract designs.

Card #41 Floating By

I have been seriously sleep deprived lately so clouds are especially appealing to me. Floating, drifting away, sounds great to me. I have been practicing many techniques for making clouds. For this cloud painting I tried using an eraser to smudge the edges or soften the edges of the clouds. I don't know if this is my favorite technique. There will be more to come.

Treasury

I have a encaustic painting that was included in a treasury on etsy. The last time I had a painting in a treasury it sold! I can only hope it happens again! Here is the link to the treasury http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c80d78433778eef285ff09b/an-art-lovers-guide

I have been painting

I have been painting --I just haven't been posting. This is one of the geometric paintings I have been working on. I started with a light spraying of paint over flavored tea. Then I painting the triangles and ended with painting around the square shapes. I thought it turned out nice. What do you think?